1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates in general to outside equipment enclosures, and more particularly to venting watertight equipment enclosures which house telecommunications equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Highly sensitive telecommunications equipment, such as remote phone switching equipment, is often housed in an outside enclosure. Because of the sensitivity of the equipment, it is crucial that the enclosure be watertight, even in inclimate weather. Thus, enclosures of this kind are often sealed.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an enclosure for housing electronic telecommunications equipment. The enclosure has sidewalls 2, 4, top 6 and base 8. An interior chamber 10 for housing telecommunications equipment is provided above base 8. To cool the electronics equipment, heat exchangers 12 are provided. The interior chamber 10 is sealed by diagonal plates 14, 16 and a longitudinal plate 18. Air is not permitted to flow around plates 14, 16, 18.
The telecommunications equipment to be stored in the enclosure may have volatile memories which could be erased upon power loss. Therefore, backup batteries 20 and battery charger 22 are provided within the enclosure to protect the telecommunications equipment in the event of a power loss. However, the batteries 20 emit hydrogen and other gases when the batteries 20 are being charged and used. Therefore, there is a need to vent gases from the enclosure. However, as stated above, it is crucial that the enclosure be watertight.
Currently, fiber optics are used to transmit data long distances between large commercial users. However, it is generally not possible for an individual or small company to use fiber optics for receiving information. Work is progressing so that an individual user can receive multimedia data (video) through asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) on optical fibers. To this end, an optical fiber would be fed to a "pedestal" from which signals would be distributed to individual users by conventional means, such as twisted coaxial wires.
The electronics equipment housed in the pedestals used for distributing signals is highly sensitive. Moisture seriously interferes with the operation of such equipment. However, in flooding conditions, a pedestal may be under several feet of water. Moreover, it is necessary to dissipate heat generated by the electronics equipment.